Cargando…

Tau Biology and Tau-Directed Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterised by a progressive loss of cognitive functions. Histopathologically, AD is defined by the presence of extracellular amyloid plaques containing Aβ and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins. According to the now well-...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bakota, Lidia, Brandt, Roland
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4757605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26729186
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40265-015-0529-0
_version_ 1782416476919037952
author Bakota, Lidia
Brandt, Roland
author_facet Bakota, Lidia
Brandt, Roland
author_sort Bakota, Lidia
collection PubMed
description Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterised by a progressive loss of cognitive functions. Histopathologically, AD is defined by the presence of extracellular amyloid plaques containing Aβ and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins. According to the now well-accepted amyloid cascade hypothesis is the Aβ pathology the primary driving force of AD pathogenesis, which then induces changes in tau protein leading to a neurodegenerative cascade during the progression of disease. Since many earlier drug trials aiming at preventing Aβ pathology failed to demonstrate efficacy, tau and microtubules have come into focus as prominent downstream targets. The article aims to develop the current concept of the involvement of tau in the neurodegenerative triad of synaptic loss, cell death and dendritic simplification. The function of tau as a microtubule-associated protein and versatile interaction partner will then be introduced and the rationale and progress of current tau-directed therapy will be discussed in the biological context.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4757605
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Springer International Publishing
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-47576052016-02-26 Tau Biology and Tau-Directed Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease Bakota, Lidia Brandt, Roland Drugs Leading Article Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterised by a progressive loss of cognitive functions. Histopathologically, AD is defined by the presence of extracellular amyloid plaques containing Aβ and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins. According to the now well-accepted amyloid cascade hypothesis is the Aβ pathology the primary driving force of AD pathogenesis, which then induces changes in tau protein leading to a neurodegenerative cascade during the progression of disease. Since many earlier drug trials aiming at preventing Aβ pathology failed to demonstrate efficacy, tau and microtubules have come into focus as prominent downstream targets. The article aims to develop the current concept of the involvement of tau in the neurodegenerative triad of synaptic loss, cell death and dendritic simplification. The function of tau as a microtubule-associated protein and versatile interaction partner will then be introduced and the rationale and progress of current tau-directed therapy will be discussed in the biological context. Springer International Publishing 2016-01-04 2016 /pmc/articles/PMC4757605/ /pubmed/26729186 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40265-015-0529-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Leading Article
Bakota, Lidia
Brandt, Roland
Tau Biology and Tau-Directed Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease
title Tau Biology and Tau-Directed Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease
title_full Tau Biology and Tau-Directed Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease
title_fullStr Tau Biology and Tau-Directed Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease
title_full_unstemmed Tau Biology and Tau-Directed Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease
title_short Tau Biology and Tau-Directed Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease
title_sort tau biology and tau-directed therapies for alzheimer’s disease
topic Leading Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4757605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26729186
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40265-015-0529-0
work_keys_str_mv AT bakotalidia taubiologyandtaudirectedtherapiesforalzheimersdisease
AT brandtroland taubiologyandtaudirectedtherapiesforalzheimersdisease